Bureaucracy Treated Me Like An Untouchable: Dalit Ex-IAS Officer

As Rohith’s suicide puts the focus back on Dalits, fSivakami says the community is denied even basic human rights.

As the suicide of Rohith Vemula puts the focus back on the contentious issue of Dalit rights, former IAS officer and author P Sivakami says that the community is denied even the basic human rights.

The critically-acclaimed author and former bureaucrat said she quit the IAS in 2008 after being treated like an untouchable. Sivakami, who was in the Indian Administrative Service for 28 years, told IANS that her decision was fuelled by the realisation that Dalits have no place in nation-building.

With more than eight books to her credit, Sivakami is among India’s most prominent Dalit writers. Her first book, In The Grip of Change, had created a stir as it questions patriarchy in the Dalit movement.

Both the political class and bureaucracy work together against the Dalits. During my service, though my position was next to the minister in the state I was serving in, I had to struggle for basic rights for tribals. I was dubbed as a person who belongs to the community when I was working for their welfare. It amounted to untouchability. I realised that there was an unwritten law against people from the lower community.

P Sivakami